Abstract:

Research on earthen architecture in the north-east of the Iberian Peninsula has followed a path largely influenced by the advances and methodologies in force in the south of France. These studies began in southern Gaul at the end of the 1980s through two key factors: the implementation of a methodology for the excavation and description of earthen structures and the setting of a specific and precise vocabulary. To these would be added, throughout the 1990s, the use of analytical techniques such as micromorphology. Meanwhile, south of the Spanish-French border, prior to the 1990s, there was little interest in the correct nomenclature, description and interpretation of these elements, which, moreover, were often left unexcavated. It was from that decade onwards that interest began to emerge in the study of earthen constructions, and the French model was adopted for the description of structures and the characterisation of the different construction techniques documented. More specifically, the first studies of elements built with earth, using a macroscopic approach, were carried out at numerous Catalan sites, especially protohistoric ones. Experimental archaeology was also an important tool for a better understanding of the problems surrounding earth construction. However, it was not until the turn of the millennium that other methodologies were used in research on earthen structures; in particular thin sections micromorphology, without forgetting chemical analysis, phytolith and calcitic microremains and FTIR, among other techniques.